KALTER VS. TUSMON
“Our first Fiend bullied a clumsy woman with a horrible disability until she finally fell out of the arena. What travesty will he commit next? The Anger-Issues Athlete, Kalter!”
“It’s like you’re trying to piss me off with that intro,” Kalter scowled as he approached the arena, lugging behind the same dollie he’d brought with him in the previous match but also a new chest of goodies. “Who’s writing those for you anyways? No, I bet I can guess.”
“And our next competitor had a bit of a moral quandary with his last opponent, but he has no reason to hold back against this hot-blooded criminal, The Irritating Investigator, Detective Tusmon!” The man slowly walked out to the stage, and stared down his opponent the moment they locked eyes.
Rallie then posed a question. “Uhh, are you alright there, Kalter?” The Athlete hadn’t stopped seething since Tusmon’s name was announced, his blood practically boiling out of his skin. Kalter’s breath had become erratic and enraged, but he finally took a deep breath to calm himself down. “Erm, I’m guessing there’s some sort of history between you two, so don’t let me stand in your way. Fight!”
《Drim: Hmm, Phon must have messed up with the matchups again, or the randomizer just had to pick the worst option. This could be bad. Tusmon, never drop your guard.》
“So it’s you…” Kalter’s words still dripped with hatred. “Let me tell you my wish, detective. Not long ago, our leader, our best friend, was taken from us. So when we win, we’re going to demand that the Drazahs bring her back! I don’t know how it’ll be possible. Of course they had to go and kill that Fiend that brought others back from the dead, but I’m sure they can find a way. There has to be a way!”
“And there’s definitely proof that she can still be saved,” Kalter raised an accusing finger and jammed it in the detective’s direction. “Because her soul still lives in you! We may have not seen it happen ourselves, but you’re the mawhger who killed her! Don’t try to deny it, because there on your disgusting face, that’s her eye!”
Tusmon didn’t respond, only gripped his pistol, waiting for the best moment to attack the unhinged man.
And Kalter kept on raving. “That’s why we’re here. But I have a second wish, and that was to fight you! I’m going to make you regret everything you’ve ever done, renounce everything you stand for! And when you’re bloody on the ground, begging for mercy, we’re going to rip her eye and her soul right out of you!”
Kalter grabbed a few manhole covers and threw them. Tusmon immediately opened fire in response and readied himself to dodge whatever came his way, but nothing did. The covers barely moved a few inches. Instead of attacking, they all spun around Kalter, like they were caught in his gravitational pull. The man was targeting himself with his Curse, as an act of self preservation.
He threw each and every cover until they were all rapidly spinning around him. They started off fairly close, but their radius expanded as more joined in orbit. The circles of metal were his protection, and they deflected every shot Tusmon took.
And Kalter didn’t stop there, now that he had his rotating shield, he could go on the offensive. The man popped his trunk and began flinging things out of it like he was digging for treasure.
A full barrage of random zjik soared right at Tusmon. Some of it had to deal with sports like darts, javelins, and bowling balls, but others were skirting the line like shurikens and throwing knives. His title as The Athlete was certainly pushing the boundary.
“Of course a slithering snake like you would be so slippery,” Kalter tisked when his barrage completely failed. Tusmon had dodged every single thing thrown at him somehow, like he could read Kalter’s mind and see exactly where they were going. The detective was obviously the target, but the angle of attack had been decided on the spot.
And the random projectiles hadn’t fallen limp after the first miss either, adjusting their aim and resuming their pursuit. So Tusmon had to destroy everything that’d been thrown at him, having to take out a second pistol to deal with it all. The paralysis ammo certainly helped in this endeavor, since anything that wasn’t outright destroyed by the shots was eaten and corroded.
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“You’ve already wrecked the bulk of my supplies,” Kalter was obviously annoyed. “There must be some aspect of your Curse I don’t know about that lets you see where I’m aiming. You should thank her for giving you such a useful power! But don’t think you’ll win so easily! If it comes down to it, I’ll throw you out of this arena myself. And… In the event that we got to fight, I had something special made!”
Kalter emptied his trunk, throwing every last item inside. They eventually abandoned sports altogether. He started throwing swords, maces, bullets, and then finally, the trunk itself.
Tusmon had the toughest time yet dodging the large luggage, having to dive away as he peppered it with shots to break it. But what he didn’t see was the object thrown directly behind it. The item was already aiming right for his head, as if Kalter knew the way he’d dodge. Maybe that’s what all that nonsense and feint attacks had been for, to learn his movement patterns. The Athlete wasn’t just a meathead afterall.
As the small object zoomed closer, Tusmon desperately tried to raise his gun in time. Since he was down on the ground, he wouldn’t be able to dodge, but maybe he could shoot it out of the air. As if time slowed down, his Judge Eye examined the pointed projectile flying right towards him. It was a syringe. As for the contents, his Curse did a toxicology examination. And as soon as he knew the results, dread consumed him. Zjik!
Unfortunately for the detective, the needle was moving too fast and he missed his shot. But just an inch away from piercing his lavender eye, a second shot rang out. The syringe suddenly took a dive and slammed into the ground next to Tusmon, jabbing into the arena floor.
“W-what?!” Kalter was just as surprised that he’d somehow missed.
《Phon: Oopsie, that’s a foul!》
Countless shots rang out around the arena, right into Kalter, riddling him with paralysis rounds even through all his protection. The man collapsed to the ground, his scowl permanently etched into his face that he was unable to move. All the manhole covers spinning around him clanged to the ground.
《Phon: Contestant Kalter has been disqualified for attempting to kill his opponent.》
Phon then appeared in the arena herself next to Tusmon and picked up the syringe. She then teleported over to Kalter and knelt down. “Did you really think you could sneak this past us?” She dangled the needle between her fingers and let it sway tauntingly right in front of his eyes.
“We scanned your entire bodies when you entered our coliseum, along with everything you were carrying. You must have had Alk make this for you before the competition, right? It took our resident chemist Andi quite some time to figure this out without a sample, but she got it eventually.”
“After several agonizing moments of pain, it would have killed Tusmon. Even our best doctors and Ahvra wouldn’t be able to save him in time. But it also does one more thing. It would have perfectly preserved his body. That way, even though you knew you’d be disqualified, you’d hope one of your friends would win and get the wish. With Tusmon’s corpse intact, your chances of bringing Creti back would be much higher.”
“You also could have just let yourself lose and kept him alive, but I bet your pride and lust for vengeance wouldn’t have allowed that. So you chose this more satisfying yet more risky option when it came to saving her. Imagine if you did all this and it turned out that Tusmon being dead removed any chance. How heartbreaking. She would have been so disappointed in you. Have fun thinking about that, bye bye!”
Kalter vanished from the arena, to whatever place they were going to hold him. They couldn’t risk letting him loose until the competition is over, just in case he’d try to do something else bold and stupid.
“Uhh, well that was an interesting match, but Tusmon wins!” Rallie hopped onto the stage and applause began.
“Like zjik he does!” Phon denied it immediately, grinning devilishly at the man who had just pried himself up off the floor. “Oh no no no. We may have let that shit fly in the other brackets, but not this one. See, we didn’t actually care really about the integrity of the human and Lesser fights. They had disqualifications too, but it didn’t matter if that team advanced because there were so many of them.”
“But in the Fiend bracket, we’ve changed up the rules. Tusmon still hasn’t proven that he’s worthy to advance. There’s no free passes here. So we’ve prepared a backup opponent for him. Send her in!”
A figure jumped down from on-high, landing with a striking pose. It was a freshly reborn Rusa, aged up to a young adult and dressed in rarely seen combat gear. She grabbed her cane from her waist and slammed it out to her side, extending it to its full length, ready for a fight.
“Have fun you two!” Phon laughed one last time and vanished.
~Unfulfilled Wish~
Kalter: To bring Creti back to life!